Yesterday's post exploded a bit. Rushlock kindly asked me yesterday over in the partner Discord if he could make a response video and I didn't hesitate to say, "yes please". I did so without knowing ahead of time which way he might lean in the video. It didn't matter to me, I'm always willing to support those in the community that are making content - if they agree with me or not. Agreement is not the most important factor to me. I could write an entire post about great debate and intellectual challenges (and I probably have) but that isn't the point of this post.
Every morning as part of my ritual I try to get caught up on the goings on I missed by sleeping. I catch up on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to see if I missed anything or catch the current mood of things. Yesterday I happened to read a post over on Eve Facebook about someone leaving the game. Again. This specific post contained all the usual classic tropes, anger, multiple alt accounts, industry changes, game being ruined, you know the ones. I don't like seeing anyone leave Eve, goodness knows we need all the players we can get. But it struck me, having read posts like that one a million times, that some people leave Eve in very weird ways.
Heck 69% of Eve Reddit is made up of former angry players. (50% of statistics are made up by the way) People who have not only quit the game, but hang around to ensure they can keep saying they quit long after they quit. Read any comment thread and you are bound to run into a bunch of them. "This is why I quit and unsubbed my alts back in 2010!" Good grief.
One exercise I use out here in real life is to take something and transpose it into a different environment. This helps me check the validity of something rather easily. For example, let's take that Reddit quitter and imagine he is hanging out on an employer's forum for the past 11 years, "This is exactly why I quit this company back in 2010!!" Now that is creepy. No one does this. And if they do, we'd expect them to be receiving professional help.
I use to play a lot of video games I no longer play. For one reason or another I lost interest, or moved on to something else. And yet I don't continue to hang out on their platforms waiting for the chance to alienate new players, or grind an axe I've been holding onto for years. I get that CCP can often make us angry. Goodness knows they've managed to make me angry a lot over the years. But my game has nothing to do with CCP. I don't fly with CCP (not often anyway), they aren't in my Corporation or my Alliance (I don't think!), mostly they make a video game I enjoy playing. They are a group of truly amazing people that desperately want to make a video game that can last the test of time. They really do. And Eve is almost 20 years old. That's insane.
I would suggest that if Eve can cause you so much pain, that perhaps you should quit. Find something else to do with your free time. A hobby you enjoy. Something that brings you happiness. Trust me, life is too short for this level of aggravation. I'm staying because Eve is that place for me. I love it. I love the game, the people, and the times we spend together both in space and on Earth. I even love the people that work at CCP. I don't want you to quit. But sometimes that can be the best choice.
Enjoy what you are doing. If not, then find something else to do. You do not HAVE to play Eve. We'll be fine. In fact, we'll be great. And we'll have peace of mind knowing you moved on and found something else to do. We just want you to be happy.
And we'd appreciate it if you felt the same for us.